Julian Costello Quartet - Twickenham Jazz Club

Julian Costello

Julian Costello – Saxophone
John Turville – Piano
Andy Hamill – Double Bass
Tom Hooper – Drums

Andy Hamill

Twickenham Jazz Club
6th September 2023

John Turville 

Julian Costello returned to Twickenham Jazz Club with a bag full of new tunes which he will be recording this November. An intrinsic part of the relaunch of Twickenham Jazz Club post lockdown, his music invites the listener to close their eyes and open their soul to a world of warmth, laughter, kindness, frustrations, wistfulness. All expressed by a distinctive musician, a lyrical optimistic man, and his saxophone.

Tom Hooper 

Martin Nickless plays Benny Goodman

Paul Morgan

Martin Nickless - clarinet
Bruce Boardman - keys
Paul Morgan - bass
Rod Brown - drums

17/11/2021

Twickenham Jazz Club welcomed the Martin Nickless Quartet for a night of tunes made famous by Benny Goodman.

Martin Nickless

Martin Nickless is a clarinet and saxophone composer and arranger. He has worked with various groups including Glen Miller UK, the Pasedina Roof Orchestra and the Chris Barber jazz band. Nickless has played for many West End shows, and sessions for composer Stanley Myers, as well as touring with Jack Jones, Frankie Vaughan & Norman Wisdom.

Bruce Boardman

Benny Goodman (1909-1986) was an American jazz clarinettist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". Wikipedia

Rod Brown

Julian Costello - Twickenham Jazz Club

Julian Costello

Julian Costello - saxophone
Maciek Pysz - guitar
Dave Jones - drums
Eric Ford  - drums

Twickenham Jazz Club - 6th October 2021

In recent weeks we have welcomed the return of Twickenham Jazz Club. Familiar faces once again grace the audience at The Cabbage Patch, and Lesley Christiane is our hostess of Jazz. The music has now moved to Wednesday nights, 7.30pm to 10.30pm (two sets 8-9pm & 9.30-10.30pm).

Julian Costello

Local favourite Julian Costello packed out the club on 6th October 2021 to play tunes (mostly) from his latest album Connections. Compositions that utilised the talents of Maciek Pysz on guitar were particularly well received by the audience. 

Dave Jones

Julian Costello Saxophonist / Composer / Educator lives in London with his crazy but lovely family of teenagers and he tries to approach life with humour. 
https://www.juliancostello.co.uk/

Eric Ford

“Julian Costello is a sax lyricist, telling his stories of life’s ups and downs ... to impart strength, humour and even frailty” "There's a sense of graceful lyricism, combined with an inner strength, in the playing of tenor and soprano saxophonist Julian Costello........Costello's improvising is carefully crafted, beauifully structured, and mellow”, John Watson.

Maciek Pysz

Peter Jones at Twickenham Jazz Club

Leon Greening

Peter Jones - vocals
Kelvin Christiane - saxophone
Leon Greening - piano
Andy Cleyndert - bass
Sophie Alloway - drums

Kelvin Christiane

14th January 2020
Twickenham Jazz Club, Twickenham, UK

Sophie Alloway

Lesley and Kelvin Christiane ushered in the new jazz decade at Twickenham Jazz Club with the Peter Jones Quartet. 2020 here we come!

Peter Jones

Peter Jones has taught film and media at a variety of London colleges, and published a short book on black cinema (BFI Publishing), followed by a handbook for media and film students (Hodder Arnold). During the making of his first album (`One Way Ticket to Palookaville' - 2013) he developed a serious interest in the work of Mark Murphy. In 2018 he published This is Hip, an outstanding book on the life and music of Mark Murphy. His second album (`Utopia') was released in 2016.  

Andy Cleyndert

Stuart Henderson Quartet - The Magic of Miles Davis

Stuart Henderson

Stuart Henderson Quartet
Stuart Henderson - trumpet
Pete Billington  - piano
Raph Mizraki - bass
Simon Price - drums
+
Kelvin Christiane - saxophone
+
Barbie Benson - vocals

Pete Billington

Date - 20th March 2018
Venue - Twickenham Jazz Club, Twickenham, UK
Current album - Up Wind

Kelvin Christiane

Future performance
25th March 2018 (3.30pm) - Sunday Jazz at the Retreat
25th March 2018 (8pm) - Jazz at the Hare Bethnal Green
30th March 2018 - Remix Jazz Orchestra, Finchampstead Memorial Hall, The Village, Finchampstead, Wokingham RG40 4JT, UK

Raph Mizraki

A vibrant and energised night at Twickenham Jazz Club, one of the jazz jewels in the West London crown. Old and new faces packed out the music bar at the Cabbage Patch pub, the home of the club on Tuesdays. The music of Miles Davis and the performance of Stuart Henderson's quartet had drawn them in from the cold. Many had come to celebrate the 60th birthday of Kelvin Christiane, who runs the club with his wife Lesley, all left in uplifted spirits with cake and fire in their bellies. Long live jazz, long live Miles the king, the magic lives on.

From 1983 - 2005 Stuart Henderson was principal trumpet of The Scots Guards Band in Her Majesty’s Household Division. During this period he played many times for the Royal Family and at State occasions all over the world. Since leaving the services Stuart has become a fixture on the UK jazz scene appearing with many of the countries finest jazz musicians.

He leads various small groups and is musical director of the Remix Jazz Orchestra. He has played at many jazz festivals including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Brecon. Recording credits include dance labels “Nanny Tango”, “Soul Purpose” and “Greenfly”, and artistic collaborations with Tongues of Fire, Macnas and Mark Anderson “Dark Spark”. His commercial work includes the Rebecca Poole quartet, the String of Pearls, Joe Loss, The Showbiz Pops Orchestra and Nick Heyward.

Simon Price

Real Jazz musicians love to play to an intimate, individual audience who truly listen to their music. This cannot be achieved in huge venues like The Festival Hall, The Royal Albert Hall or many of our central London prestigious venues, yet often the musicians that appear at Twickenham Jazz Club are in middle of a tour at such venues and just seek a 'Proper Jazz Gig' - they just want to relax and play the music they love, to a listening audience.

In December 2014, the club moved to a new home, the world famous Cabbage Patch in London Road, Twickenham. Right in the middle of town, a stroll from Twickenham Station and with excellent bus services that stop virtually outside the door, the new venue promises to deliver even better jazz on a regular basis in a more accessible location where the Club continues to build its reputation as one of the best jazz clubs in London.

Barbie Benson

Graeme Taylor's FatSax

Piers Green

Andy Tolman

FatSax
Graeme Taylor - piano
Sam Walker - tenor saxophone
Kelvin Christiane - tenor saxophone
Piers Green - alto saxophone
Andy Mears - alto saxophone
Ollie Weston - baritone saxophone
Andy Tolman - bass
Mike Bradley - drums

Graeme Taylor

Graeme Taylor's FatSax project tips its hat to the world's most classy tribute act of all time, Supersax. Created in 1972 to honour the iconic bebop music of saxophonist Charlie Parker it went on to feature a ever changing role call of talented musicians. Taylor has trimmed the original Supersax format for this concert at Twickenham Jazz Club by removing the trumpet/trombone element but still there was plenty of brass to go round with 2 alto saxophones, 2 tenor saxophones and baritone alongside bass, drums and of course Graeme Taylor himself on piano.

Sam Walker

It is two years since I have experienced FatSax and not much has changed apart from the personnel and why should it. If you have a winning formula then all that is needed is a gentle caress. Taylor spices up his own recipe with changes in arrangement and a subtle stir of the musicians. Fatsax is unashamedly macho in the flex of its muscle. It is fast, furious and virile.

Ollie Weston

On what would have been Bud Powell's 92nd birthday FatSax gave us the emperor's bullet of Tempus Fugit. Clashing and proud this was pectoral jazz as puffed chests smashed together. Ollie Weston was the slippery Deepthroat, he lathered himself up, writhing in his solo like a electric eeled Schwarzenegger, his baritone was a throbbing manliness. Andy Tolman's bass was the ebullient fizz as Mike Bradley popped the corks on drums. Piers Green's alto had the easy lasso of a rancher, the steer man held his reins while waving victoriously to the Twickenham Jazz Club crowd.

Mike Bardley

Moment's Notice was a rich chop, ducks all lined in a row for the audience, shooting fish in a barrel, sugar coated and cigar puffs. It was easy to lay down and let the sax wash all over us. The meat of the music was laid on a plate, full in the mouth, a gravy indulgence. With the glittering of the saxophones' golden thrusts we all became locked in FatSax's bronze cell of speed and dexterity. It was a metallic cascade which rained upon us, we were the accommodating Danae and Graeme Taylor was our Zeus.

AL.

Kelvin Christiane

Andy Mears

Maciej Grzywacz & Nigel Price - Twin peaks

Maciej Grzywacz

Maciej Grzywacz - guitar
Nigel Price - guitar
Kelvin Christiane - tenor saxophone and flute
Richard Sadler - bass
Noel Joyce - drums
Lesley Christiane - vocals

Noel Joyce

Date - 22 March 2016
Venue -  Twickenham Jazz Club
Current Album Maciej Grzywacz - Solo (2015)

Nigel Price

Maciej Grzywacz is a guitarist and composer who hails from seaside resort of Sopot in Poland. He earned his music laurels from both the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland and the Higher School of Music in Munich, Germany. In addition to numerous concert and festival appearances in Poland, Maciej has toured in Canada, Israel and several countries in Europe, including Germany, France, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria and Romania. He can now add England to this burgeoning list of nations after being the chosen recipient of the yearly cultural Jazz exchange between Twickenham Jazz Club and Poland.

 



Kelvin Christiane

Maciej Grzywacz has five albums as a leader to his credit - "Solo" recorded entirely on classical guitar, “Black Wine” with american drummer Clarence Penn and bassist Yasushi Nakamura, "Things Never Done" which features renowned New York trumpeter Avishai Cohen, "Forces Within" with Canadian drummer Tyler Hornby and "Fourth Dimension" with alto sax player Maciej Obara.

 

Maciej received a “Fryderyk”, Polish award nomination in the Jazz Album of The Year category twice.  He is a faculty member at Academy of Music in Gdansk, Poland.

 

Richard Sadler

A night dominated by the twin peaks of guitarists Maciej Grzywacz and Nigel Price although my sketch pad can never resist the walking totem of the moustachioed and besatcheled Richard Sadler.

 

Price toyed with us, his mouth opening and closing like the chomp of a Hungry Hippo, musical marbles poured out, cascading down the hill into the audience's laps. It was our job to keep on our toes, navigating Price's dexterous feints and jabs.

 

Faces of Nigel Price

Maciej Grzywacz is a roller skater, a glider, he sways in and out of Price's obstacles, rising above the plane on which our everyday ears twitch and stretch. Kelvin Christiane was full of capers, back to a carefree groove after months ploughing the winter furrow.

 

Always we were drawn back to the interplay between Grzywacz and Price. The former sang a light and soulful song while Price dug into clods of earth. Although the rise of Maciej lifted the spirits it was the lure of getting your hands dirty with Nigel that appealed to the filthy hearts of Jazz.

 

AL.

Lesley Christiane

 

 

Sax Appeal - Derek Nash

Derek Nash

Sax Appeal

Alec Dankworth

Derek Nash - Alto Saxophone
Scott Garland - Alto Saxophone
Duncan Eagles - Tenor Saxophone
Rob Hughes - Tenor Saxophone
Bob McKay - Baritone Saxophone and Flute
Alec Dankworth - Bass
Rick Simpson - Keys

Scott Garland

Mike Bradley - Drums


Date - 27th October 2015

Venue - Twickenham Jazz Club, Cabbage Patch, Twickenham

Current Albums
Sax Appeal - FUNKERDEEN
Derek Nash - You've Got to Dig It to Dig It, You Dig?


Duncan Eagles

Derek Nash in concert
He is currently on tour with the Jools Holland R&B Orchestra until 2oth December 2015. More details at http://www.joolsholland.com
He does have a duo gig at The Cross Keys, 236/238 St Johns Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN4 9XD on 16/12/2015 - 20:15



Rob Hughes

The audience like Derek Nash, they quite simply like him as much as a person as they do a musician. To build this rapport with an audience isn't necessarily an easy thing to do and Nash never holds back in his commitment to a performance.

The tenors of Rob Hughes and Duncan Eagles (fresh off the plane from Partikel's epic tour of China) give us an early Jazz wedgie with the title track to Sax Appeal's latest album Funkerdeen.



Bob McKay

Blue for you feels its way through sleepy eyes into Sax Appeal's performance, Bob McKay wears the metaphorical pyjamas, stretching out his long limbs, propping himself on an elbow and fires up a little smoke. There is an epilogue to this song from Rob Hughes who puts the melting cheese on this morning fry up, a toasty delight, crisp and even. Eventually and unavoidably sinking teeth into much more meaty fare.

The optimistic Seville being the tune. An infectious march and leap, that spurred toes in the audience, from drum to bass, top to bottom, forward and back. Mike Bradley's hard persuasive beats, a beast happy in its sweating skin.

Mike Bradley

The stage was not only set for Jazz music but also the imminent World Cup rugby final, the crowd already full bolstered by Antipodean visitors dancing in the aisles and drinking champagne. The stage bulbs above Sax Appeal start to swing with the convection heat pulsing from the 5 strong saxophone line. Derek Nash's music never talks of empty landscapes it always speaks of people and to people. He is a showman in the kindest definition of the word, his music is a bus ride, a tram journey perhaps. It is about chatter and rubbing shoulders, the joy of being amongst other people. It seems obvious but that is why we come to clubs like Twickenham Jazz Club rather than watch our heroes on Youtube.

Rick Simpson

Sax Appeal aren't a one trick pony, neither in personnel nor subject matter. Derek Nash's Phoenix Suite is testament to that. No hitch kicks from Nash on this occasion, he instead leans back and calls like a howling wolf. Eagles takes up the challenge,  angular and sharp, he is both the builder of the song's motifs and its wrecker. You'll be unlikely to see a tattoo on Eagles knuckles but for this song his fists might well of spelt out Love and Hate. Ghosts, rather than make us dwell on death, awakened an interest in Rick Simpson and were the foundations for a wall of saxophone sound. Simpson was forever present, eventually pulling the teeth from the deadly big band saxes. His was a Hammond silt that eventually sieved out Derek Nash, like gold in a prospector's pan.

AL.

Tumultuous Tenors - Sam Walker & Kelvin Christiane

Sam Walker - Tenor Saxophone

When two tenor saxophones come together it is often like watching two stags rutting in nearby Bushy Park. They stamp upon each other up, puffing chests and locking horns. Not so at Twickenham Jazz Club (19/05/2015) with the twin barrels of Tumultuous Tenors Kelvin Christiane and Sam Walker. This was a thinking man's performance from two musicians not afraid to show their cerebral side, where the bond was brotherhood rather than battle.

Jim Treweek - piano

It would be easy to have gourmand eyes for just the main Tenor dish, but it was a gentle start and one that suited Jim Treweek on piano. He is no stranger to the finer arts and with sleek fingers to match his chiselled cheek and jaw he makes an excellent artist's model. He is no stranger to pencil and pad himself, like the bassist Larry Bartley it seems Treweek is one of our many renaissance men on London's Jazz circuit.

Akos Hosznos - Bass

Wayne Shorter's 'Down Under' was broken apart and reconstructed by the Tenors, it was a puzzler, a gilt edged jigsaw. It was Thelonious Monk's 'Well, You Needn't' though that really swelled the chests of musicians and audience alike. Its first breath was of discordant colours, but soon these were worn with pride on lapels, there was a dandy stride that reeked of confidence and the twin tenors of Christiane and Walker wore stripes and spots in a winning combination.

Kelvin Christiane - Tenor Saxophone

Walker excelled in broken short mouthed stabs that were an anthem for the anxious amongst us. His stride lengthened too and although the Monk tune was penned in 1944 the arrangement by Tony Faulkner made us think of more modern times. We strode with confidence down Twickenham highways, the Burger Kings slipped past, we were urban heroes who danced through the crowds, sidestep and jink took us past buzzing diners. There was a resistance and yet a revelling in the modern life, there was disquiet and still a joy in living.

Noel Joyce - drums

Walker was at it again on 'You Don't Know What Love Is' and he drew the crepuscular blanket across the gap in lazy day and lazy night. It was a languid flight of the bumblebee, thick with dreams and an insomniac night air.

Never forget 'Angel Eyes' herself, Lesley Christiane started the second set but will be performing the full repertoire at the next Twickenham Jazz Club art exhibition and barbeque on the 26th July 2015. Free entry and delicious food from 1-5pm.

Lesley Christiane

AL.